Communications via satellites, that forty years ago was novel, has now become common. Whether the communications are telephone calls, the latest video for the 10 O'clock news, or surfing the web, etc., the concept of sending a signal to a satellite, and having the satellite rebroadcast the signal is well established. Typical state of the art satellites broadcast signals in the range of 3-30 Gigahertz, with corresponding data rates of up to 20 Mbits/second.
Although this data rate may sound impressive at first, the inventors of the present invention have contemplated that in the future, a substantially higher data satellite rates will be required. For example, the inventors contemplate that satellite data rates in the order of Terahertz may be necessary.
One method contemplated by the inventors for increasing the data bandwidth is to increase the number of communications satellites. Drawbacks to this approach include that communications satellites are very expensive to manufacture and maintain over the lifespan. Another drawback is that the skies are getting crowded, thus the number of satellites that can be put into orbit is diminishing.
Another solution contemplated by the inventors to increase the bandwidth has been to use optical system and lasers for communications. In particular, the inventors have considered selected concepts explored in the non-related field of weapon systems for ideas. Some concepts include missile acquisition, pointing and tracking using transmit and receive optical systems. Some specific directed energy weapons programs include multi-target tracking such as Talon Gold, LODE, StarLab, ADAPT, and CF & TDP. Such programs devote a great quantity of hardware and software resources for acquisition of an incoming missile. However, for communications, such resources are not as important, because communications terminals deliberately signal their presence.
In light of the above, what is required are improved methods and apparatus for acquisition and tracking of multiple independently target laser communications devices. Further, what is required are methods and apparatus for providing such solutions in economical ways.